Hearing set for officer charged in prisoner abuse case

ALICIA A. CALDWELL

Published
6:00 pm CST, Sunday, December 4, 2005

Associated Press Writer

Army investigators say that military police officers guarding some of the most dangerous suspected terrorists in Afghanistan in 2002 were poorly supervised, leading to the beating deaths of two detainees and the assaults of countless others.

As the man in charge of jail guards at the time, Army prosecutors say that Capt. Christopher M. Beiring failed to properly train and supervise the MPs or follow an order to take corrective action after a prisoner died.

Beiring, whose job it was to oversee the Ohio reservists from the Cincinnati-based 377th MP Co., will be in court Monday for a hearing that will decide if he should face a court martial on charges of dereliction of duty and making a false official statement.

Prosecutors allege that Beiring, the only officer so far charged in Afghanistan prisoner abuse investigation launched after two prisoners were beaten to death, also lied about "sustainment training" he claimed his soldiers received after each shift at the Bagram detention center.

Beiring's Article 32 hearing, which is akin to a civilian grand jury, is scheduled to last three days.

Ten of Beiring's soldiers also have faced criminal charges. Charges against two of those soldiers have been dropped while three others, all sergeants, have been acquitted by military juries. Three others have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to abuse charges, and two are still await trials.

Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, a military intelligence interrogator from the 519th MI Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., also will be in court next week to face abuse charges. His Article 32 hearing is scheduled to being Tuesday morning and is expected to last just one day.

Army prosecutors have accused Corsetti of repeatedly abusing prisoners he was interrogating by sitting on them, throwing garbage and cigarette ashes at them and in some cases threatening sexual assault.

Corsetti is charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, assault, wrongful use of hashish, and performing and indecent act with another person.

Three other interrogators already have pleaded guilty to abuse charges.